Device for scheduling fuel delivery



Feb. 20, 1962 H. B. FUGE ET AL DEVICE FOR SCHEDULING FUEL DELIVERY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 17, 1960 LEI Qam w. 33%;

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CBS 0222mm EIQME QN ON INVENTORS M w. m u w H M B J I m HH WITNESS Feb. 20, 1962 H. B. FUGE ETAL DEVICE FOR SCHEDULING FUEL DELIVERY Filed June 1'7, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Henry J. Zaorski BY M an) ATTORNEY DEVIOE FOR SCHEDULING FUEL DELIVERY Harry B. Fuge, Somerviile, and Henry J. Zaorski, Martinsville, N.J., assignors, by mesne assignments, to Plastic & Appliance (30.; Inc, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania g Filed June 17,- 1960, Ser. No. 36,772

Claims. c1. 40-195 This invention relates to devices for schedulingfuel delivery. 'The retail fuel oil merchant delivers oil to customers whose use varies primarily with the weather and whose maximum stock of fuel may be sufiicient for a period varying from three days to three months depending on tank size and rate of use. To deliver oil at theoretically minimum cost requires the solution of an extremely complex problem in linear programming. Present practice is aware of the problem, but attacks it with only the most primitive methods based almost entirely on intuition. For instance, the retailer knows he must increase gallons delivered per day during colder weather. He knows that many full'tanks of a given size and similar usage at the beginning of the season may make a pileup of required deliveries later in the season. The dispatcher often attemps to equalize deliveries by guessing from the number of customer cards in a given spot in his degree day file or other crude means. No convenient method or device appears to be available to help solve the problem.

3,021,629 Patented Feb. 20, 1952 2 sired, the unit may also be supplied with angle supports for mounting on a desk.

A plurality of strips 19, 20, 21 of different thickness made preferably of aluminum and called fill tabs carry number indicia 22 (FIG. 4) which identify specific customers. The thickness of these strips represents an anae log of the gallons required for a standard fill. For example, if inch represents 100, gallons then a strip representing a 200 gallon standard fill for a 275 gallon tank would be inch thick. The strip for a 550 gallon tank would be inch thick and so on.

A plurality of open-front boxes 23 preferably made of molded plastic and of a size to receive the fill tabs 19, 20, 21 in vertically stacked relation, are set in line horizontally on the rack 10. Each box 23 is formed with a finger portion 24 to facilitate removal from the rack 10 and has an inclined ramp 25 at the bottom to retain the fill tabs in stable stacked relation. A key portion 26 formed on the box is engaged by the in-turned portions 27 of the extrusion piece 11 which form a track on which the boxes are slidable horizontally as seen best in FIG. 2.

The device of this invention is intended to give the dispatcher a manually operated, visually readable analog display of his delivery requirements based on some fuel use index. Opportunity is then provided to manipulate this display to optimize deliveries with respect to truck size, geographical zone and coincidental peaks.

The logic of the device is based on the relatively few 7 standard tank sizes in common use along with standard truck sizes used for delivery of oil. The device may be based on weather units as indicated by the fuel use computer shown and described in the United States patent application Serial No. 815,985, filed May 26, 1959. It may also be based on degree days or many other index used to indicate fuel use as influenced by variable weather factors.

' It is an object of this invention to provide aschedu-liug device for the fuel oil dispatcher which gives him a manually operated, visually readable analog display showing the proper priority of his delivery requirements based on a fuel use index.

With the above and other objects in view, as will hereinafter appear, the invention comprises the devices, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter set forth and illustrated in the accompanying drawings of a preferred embodiment of the invention, from which the several features of the invention and the advantages attained thereby will be readily understood by those skilled in the art.

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a device embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of the device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially on line 33 of FIG. I. 7

FIG. 4 is a detail perspective view of one of the boxes of FIG. 1 with a single fill tab received therein.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a rack 10 is formed of four pieces 11, 12, 13, 14 of extruded aluminum having a section as shown in FIG. 3. These pieces are secured to a base plate 15 by means of nut and bolt fastenings 16 to form a self supporting structure which may be mounted on a wall -17 by screws 18 as shown in FIG. 2. If de- Each box represents a block of 25 weather units. On the front face 29 of each box is marked in sequence, a 3 digit number (000, 025, 050, 075, 100, etc.) in steps of 25 from 000 to 975 (40 boxes). These numbers represent the last 3 digits of a weather unit reading for today and the future for the next 2000 weather units boxes). v r p Each box will accommodate a 4 /2 inch stack of fill tabs representing approximately 28,000 gallons of oil. This yields a maximum dealer delivery-capacity of 1100 gallons per weather unit or an effective 4 /2 million gallons per year in one group of 80 boxes. It is estimated that this represents about 2500 customers requiring 4 or 5 trucks delivery capacity.

The fill tabs 19, 20, 21 extend beyond and overhang the front edge of the boxes for manual accessibility and the boxes 23 have one side open to permit ready removal of the tabs when emptying a box for delivery scheduling.

At the left end of the rack as seen in FIG. 1 a portion 28 of the track is cut away or rabbeted to permit the removal of a box 23 when moved to this position. The box 025 is shown in position to be removed. At the right end of the rack as seen in FIG. 1 the front portion 30 of the track is cut away or rabbeted to permit insertion of a box in the rack 10. t

"Numbers 3l appearing'on the rack above the box positions facilitate the filing of the fill tabs 19, 20, 21 in the proper boxes in accordance with a consumption rate factor 32 (boxes per fill) indicated thereon (FIG. 4).

On the basis of previous experience or estimated characteristics, the number of weather units between deliveries is determined for each customer. This figure divided by 25 equals the number of boxes between deliveries, i.e., boxes per fill, and may be recorded as the consumption rate factor 32 on the fill tab as shown in FIG. 4. When a customer is scheduled for delivery of a full tank of oil, the fill tab representing the analog of that customers fill is placed in the box 23 representing the weather unit reading at which the next delivery will be required. Repeating this process'results in a fill tab for each customer placed in the box representing the point on the rack 10 at which the next delivery will be required.

Since the thickness of each fill tab is an analog of delivery gallons required, the dispatcher has a complete picture in bar graph form of his weather oriented delivery requirements. The geographical zone in which a customer resides may be identified by color-coding the tabs and the dispatcher may then, by inspection, group deliveries according to neighborhood. If weather oriented deliveries result in a chance accumulated peak at a certain time, this is immediately evident from the height of the pile of fill tabs. By advancing some of these deliveries to a slack period the dispatcher may balance his daily delivery requirements to his operating truck capacity. It is also evident that the dispatcher may manipulate this analog to suit other special conditions which may arise, such as truck breakdown, for example.

As weather units are accumulated day by day during the year, the stack of boxes 23 is moved horizontally to the left along the rack in step with weather units as read from the fuel use computer and successive boxes appearing at the left end contain the fill tabs identifying the customers to be delivered each day. These boxes are removed through the rabbeted portion 28. Boxes thus emptied for delivery scheduling are returned in sequence to the right side of the rack as viewed in FIG. 1 and are inserted in the track through the rabbeted portion 30. In this manner the numerical sequence of the boxes 23, representing the accumulated weather unit scale, remains the same.

Since the output of this device is a customer identification number, a helpful additional device is a hand imprinter for plastic address cards such as used by department stores and filling stations. The customers name, address, burner rate (boxes per fill), etc., may be imprinted on the plastic address card and filed by customer identification number. These may be drawn from file as required and used to print delivery tickets for the daily delivery schedule. A single daily log of weatherunits, and a customer billing record complete the records required for the retailers operation.

From the above it will be perceived that the device of this invention eliminates the need for daily posting and extending of written records and thus eliminates the pos sihility of errors that occur so frequently in these functions. It enables the dispatcher to level peak load days at will by visually displaying'both light and heavy delivery days ahead. Delivery priority is maintained automatically since the components move on a locked track and, since only .todays boxes of fill tabs can be removed, the possibility of taking the wrong days tabs is eliminated.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what we claim herein is:

1. A device for scheduling fuel delivery to a group of customers having various known fuel storage capacities and fuel consumption rate factors comprising a supporting track, boxes identified by numbers representing blocks of cumulative weather units, degree days or their equivalent, said boxes being mounted on said track in stepped numerical sequential relation and keyed for sliding horizontally along the track for receiving tabs bearing visual individual customer identification and consumption rate factors in vertically stacked relation in said boxes,'and

means permitting removal of one box at one end of the track and subsequent insertion of said box in said track at the other end after movement of all of said boxes along said track a distance equal to the width of one box while preserving the relative position of the boxes.

. 2. A fuel delivery control indicator comprising a horizontal track, open front boxes with indicia representing blocks of cumulative weather units, degree days or their equivalent mounted on said track in side-by-side numerical sequential relation and slidable horizontally along said track for receiving tabs carrying individual customer identification numbers and consumption rate factors carried in vertically stackedrelationin the boxes, and means permitting the removal of one box at one end of the track and subsequent insertion thereof at the other end of the track after movement of all of said boxes along the track a distance equal to the width of one box, while preserving the relative position of the boxes on said track.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 in which the track is provided with sequential numbers corresponding to the positions of the boxes on the track to facilitate the filing of tabs in the proper boxes in accordance with the boxes per fill factors indicated thereon.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2 in which the boxes have one side open to facilitate removal of the tabs when the boxes are removed from the track for delivery scheduling.

5. A fuel delivery priority indicator based on a cumulative fuel use index comprising a track, open front boxes having indicia marked thereon representing equal blocks of weather units, degree days or other fuel use indices ar ranged in side-by-side numerical sequential relation and manually slidable on said track in step with the cumulative fuel use index as read daily from a fuel use computer for receiving tabs carried in said boxes in vertically stacked relation each tab bearing a customer identification number and a consumption rate factor, and means permitting the removal of a box from one end of the track and its subsequent insertion when empty at the other end of said track after all the boxes on said track have been moved along said track toward the removal end a distance equal to the width of one box while preserving the relative positions of the boxes on the track.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Parkinson -c.. July 12, 1960 

